California Today: Rain Brings Health Hazards to the Homeless

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A BART train speeds over an overpass in downtown Oakland, near a homeless camp. Drenching rains like the ones this week can cause health problems for those without shelter.CreditCreditJim Wilson/The New York Times

The first drenching rains of the season, an atmospheric river that came ashore this week, flooded roadways and snarled traffic in the San Francisco Bay Area on Thursday. For one group of residents, the region’s homeless, the rains were more than just an inconvenience.

Damp and cold conditions bring influenza and infections to the crowded tent encampments that have swelled in recent years as soaring property prices have sent more people onto the street.

“We have camps where we can have 50 to 100 people living in proximity,” said Dr. Jason Reinking, a medical doctor who focuses on the homeless as part of a program run by the Roots Community Health Center in Oakland. “Viruses or bacteria can spread quite aggressively.”

California has the highest number of homeless people, around 118,000, followed by New York with 86,000, according to last year’s count.

But California has far more unsheltered homeless — around 66 percent of the state’s homeless live on the streets. By comparison, in New York state, just 4 percent of homeless people are unsheltered.

Dr. Reinking says the damp conditions outdoors are particularly dangerous for diabetics, who are more susceptible to foot infections that can sometimes become so severe they require amputation. He struggles to keep up with needs of his patients.

“Homelessness is an epidemic in California,” Dr. Reinking said. “We are grossly understaffed and under-resourced to respond.”

Winters are of course not as extreme in Northern California compared with cities in the Midwest or New England.

Oakland has winter shelters, which opened this week, but some homeless people are reluctant to use them because it means leaving their belongings behind, according to Lara Tannenbaum, the manager of Community Housing Services for the City of Oakland.

The city also hands out hats, coats and blankets.

At dusk on Thursday, groups of men and women huddled in camping tents under a freeway in Oakland, sheltered from the steady rain but not the dampness. “It’s hard to get warm,” said Eugene Jacobs, 27, who has been homeless for the past three years. “We have to change clothes three or four times a day. Everything keeps getting wet.”

“This is going to be hard,” Mr. Jacobs said about the onset of winter. “And this is the least of it.”

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Senator Al Franken, Democrat of Minnesota, during a Judiciary committee hearing last month.CreditAl Drago for The New York Times

• A Los Angeles radio newscaster accused Senator Al Franken on Thursday of kissing and groping her without consent in 2006, before he took public office. Mr. Franken, a Democrat of Minnesota, has apologized. [The New York Times]

• With help from 11 California Republicans, the House passed a tax overhaul that is expected to negatively effect state residents. Three Republicans joined California’s Democrats in opposing the bill. [The Los Angeles Times]

• California’s state budget is looking good. New projections from a nonpartisan office show the state is on track to finish its 2018-19 budget year with more than $19 billion in reserves. Analysts are recommending that lawmakers sock the surplus away. [The Sacramento Bee]

• State licensing agencies released a package of long-awaited rules that will regulate the sale of recreational marijuana when it becomes legal on Jan. 1. No, you will not be able to get your marijuana delivered by drone. [The San Francisco Chronicle]

• A man described as a “pathological predator” escaped a psychiatric facility in Hawaii on Sunday morning. Three days later the authorities arrested the man in Stockton. Exactly how he pulled off his far-flung escape remains unclear. [The New York Times]

• In a presentation in Hawthorne, Tesla unveiled a prototype for a battery-powered, nearly self-driving semi truck. The company promises that it will prove more efficient and less costly to operate than the diesel trucks that now haul goods across the country. And it won’t emit exhaust. [The New York Times]

• Starting next January, anyone who brings a car to Muir Woods National Monument will need a reservation. The new policy makes Muir Woods the first national park unit in the country to require year-round reservations for all vehicles. [The Mercury News]

• In the decades since the Rat Pack era, Palm Springs has gradually shed its conservative political identity. Nowadays, it’s a mecca for gay and transgender people. And next month, every member of its City Council will be a member of that community. [The Los Angeles Times]

• The Los Angeles Philharmonic lost its lauded leader, Deborah Borda, to the New York Philharmonic. Now its stealing Simon Woods from the Seattle Symphony to replace her. [The New York Times]

• California’s getting older, fast. According to a new statewide report, the number of people 60 and older will jump 40 percent by 2030 — an aging boom that figures to have a wide ripple effect. [The Orange County Register]

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The Warriors’ Stephen Curry warmed up as Bob Fitzgerald (striped tie) and Jim Barnett did a pregame television broadcast last month. Barnett has been Golden State’s TV analyst since 1985, and Fitzgerald has done play-by-play for the team since 1993.CreditPeter DaSilva for The New York Times

• Remember when the Golden State Warriors stunk? The three guys who have been calling the team’s games for decades do, and they appreciate the current hot streak. [The New York Times]

• Our reporter went hiking in California’s gold country with the composer John Adams. It was Mr. Adams way of mining for the real-life tumult of the early 1850s for his latest opera, “Girls of the Golden West.” It will premiere next week in San Francisco. [The New York Times]

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Les Gourmands in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood opened several weeks ago. A loaf of its brioche that serves four people costs $29.Creditvia Yelp

And Finally ...

Yes, life has gotten pretty pricey in San Francisco. Rents are astronomical. Parking downtown for a few days will cost you a car payment. And now, some have complained, bread isn’t cheap either.

To be fair: Les Gourmands’ $29 “bread” — the target of recent internet scorn — is actually brioche; and it’s a four-person loaf that costs $29; a smaller taste for one will run you $3.50.

Sylvain Chaillout, the founder of Les Gourmands, is a fifth-generation baker who says the cost accounts for “a bit of everything.” Brioche, he notes, has always been a luxury item that requires great ingredients; his grandfather would be proud, Mr. Chaillout added, because the recipe is exactly the same as it’s always been.

“It’s a reasonable price for a good product,” he said, drawing a parallel between his brioche and top-shelf champagne.

“We’re in San Francisco,” he added. “People have money.”

The New York Times has dozens of journalists based in California. They will be contributing to California Today while we seek a permanent California Today columnist. Check out the job posting for the weekday newsletter here.

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California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley.